News at Buckley

Beyond Kanye and Kyrie: A DEI Panel

A VIP DEI panel visited Buckley last month for an Upper School assembly, “BEYOND KANYE AND KYRIE: Renewing The Historic Black-Jewish Alliance.”  
Moderated by Bakari Kitwana, the panel of thought leaders and intellects created their presentation specifically for these times, and has been touring across the country at high schools and institutions of higher learning. They describe their call to action in this description of their presentation:
  • Anti-Semitism is resurgent in America. Timeworn tropes and ancient hatreds are being recycled and mainstreamed in alarming ways – and amplified by some of the most visible people in the culture. 
  • The history of Blacks and Jews in America is a long one, by turns fraught and beautiful, and it is imperative that the lines of communication and collaboration between these two communities be renewed. So, too, is it important to realize the ways in which they overlap– not just in terms of shared spaces or values, but literally: there are Black Jews, and their voices should be heard. There is history that needs unpacking, from the alliance that helped birth the Civil Rights movement to the way that alliance dissolved in the 1980s, amidst accusations of Jewish abandonment and Black anti-Semitism. 
  • As white nationalists commit heinous acts of violence in the name of "replacement theory" and "white genocide," it is more important than ever to understand just how central the hatred of Jews is to the broader praxis of hatred – how centuries-old conspiracy theories about Jewish power and fecklessness remain central to the ideologies of groups who pose a constant threat to all our safety. 
The members of the panel:
  • Adam Mansbach, a novelist, screenwriter, cultural critic and humorist who created the Netflix show Barry and author of several bestselling books including A Field Guide to Jewish People and For This We Left Egypt. His next book is a novel, The Golem of Brooklyn (August 2023).
  • Rebecca Pierce, an African American Jewish documentary filmmaker.
  • Rabbi Susan Goldberg, founder of Nefesh, a progressive spiritual community on the east side of Los Angeles. She also helped lead the renewal of the historic Wilshire Blvd. Temple in Koreatown and Temple Beth Israel in Highland Park.
  • Courtney Desiree Morris, a visual and conceptual artist and professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley.
Back

Other News

List of 4 news stories.

View All News